VGK President Kerry Bubolz chats with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman right and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly left. Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com

Sports Commissioners Visiting Las Vegas During CES Week

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

They come to CES just like you do — to chit-chat with industry buddies, walk the convention center floors that double as over-sized exercise walk rooms and consume all the free booze and meals.

 

CES has evolved into more than just a high-tech electronics show. It’s become an early-year schmooze-fest where some of the most powerful leaders in sports like to make a cameo at events or sit in a comfy stuffed chair and talk about trends on stage in front of audiences.

 

LVSportsBiz.com heard Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was in Las Vegas this week. Jones is no stranger to Las Vegas. He was a crucial advocate for the Raiders move to Las Vegas and also envisions Las Vegas as a Super Bowl host city after the Raiders’ new stadium opens in July 2020.

 

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was part of a CES chat session on #NBATwitter, schmoozing with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (@Jack). LVSportsBiz.com also saw that Silver was hanging out with Turner President David Levy — and why not? Turner broadcasts NBA games.

 

In town this was week was a New Yorker who was seen at the New York Rangers-Vegas Golden Knights game at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday night. That New Yorker was NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who was talking with Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz.

Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com That’s Bettman on the right, chatting with Bubolz in the center.

 

LVSportsBiz.com caught up with Bubolz at today’s Golden Knights-San Jose Sharks game. Bubolz said Bettman and his right-hand man, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, are in Las Vegas for CES this week and that he was just catching up with Bettman during the VGK-Rangers game.

 

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Bettman is also attending tonight’s Golden Knights-San Jose game at T-Mobile Arena.

 

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Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Contact LVSportsBiz.com publisher/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com if you would like to buy his new book, Long Road Back to Las Vegas.

 

 

 

 

Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.